With the release of last year’s debut EP Here Comes The Apex, the Rome-based jazz rock/jazz fusion trio The Apex — Francesco Carrreti (guitar, production). Francesco Ferilli (bass) and Danilo Ombres (drums) — quickly established a songwriting approach and sound inspired by Weather Report, Miles Davis, Robert Glasper, Squarepusher, Snarky Puppy and others.
While supporting their EP with live shows in and around Rome, the act spent the next year writing and working on the compositions that would eventually comprise their forthcoming full-length debut, Kick Me with arranger/producer Toni Armetta. The album’s latest single, the eponymously titled “The Apex” features guest spots from Javier Girotto (sax) and Banco del Mutuo Socorso’s Gianni Nocenzi. Interestingly enough, the expansive composition sonically — to my ears, at least — reminds me of a slick yet soulful synthesis of Nothing Like the Sun-era Sting, Return to Forever/the aforementioned Weather Report with a subtly prog bent.
Stockholm-based doom metal/stoner rock act Spelljammer — currently, Niklas Olsson (vocals, bass), Robert Sorling (guitar) and Jonatan Remsbo (drums) have crafted a unique sound centered around a long-held penchant for massive, sludgy power chord riff-driven dirges with dramatic interludes.
2015’s Ancient of Days was the Stockholm-based act’s third release — and in many ways it was a rebirth of sorts: it was the band’s first recorded output as a trio and sonically the album represented a decided move towards a heavier, doom metal-leaning sound. Lyrically, the album was inspired by Swedish author and Nobel laureate Harry Martinson’s epic poem “Aniara,” in which a spaceship leaving an uninhabitable Earth is hurtled off course, sending its thousands of passengers on a steady course in the wrong direction — and there’s nothing they can do about it. The poem ends with the spaceship’s passengers dying as the ship continues on its journey through the vast nothingness of the solar system.
Spelljammer’s fourth release, Abyssal Trip is the first bit of new material from the acclaimed Swedish act in over five years, and the album reportedly finds the band bridging their earlier desert rock/stoner rock leanings with their more recent massive, slow-burning sludgy riffs. And while continuing Olsson’s long-held obsession with pondering the vastness of everything, Abyssal Trip derives its name from the perpetually dark, cold, oxygen-free zone at the bottom of the ocean. The album’s six songs manage to embody that bleak and dark realm with rumbling and oozing guitars and dramatic melodic interludes. But unlike its predecessors, the album finds the band crafting material that slowly unfurls, which gives the proceedings a hypnotic quality.
โThe lyrical themes we address, like the ultimate doom of man, and the search and longing for new and better worlds, are still there,โ Olsson says. โThe concept of something undiscovered out there in vast emptiness is pretty much always present.โ
Clocking in at a little under 7:30, “Lake,” Abyssal Trip’s expansive first single is centered around alternating sections of crushing, sludgy doom-laden dirge and menacing galloping thrash, a gorgeously shimmering, melodic break and a scorching guitar solo — and it’s all held together by mosh pit friendly hooks. “Lake” manages to find Spelljammer crafting a song that evokes the vastness and and power of a brewing storm over an enormous body of water — and the smallness and powerlessness of humanity.
Abyssal Trip is slated for a February 26, 2021 release through RidingE
Virak is a rapidly rising house DJ and producer. Since 2006, Virak has spun in some of the world’s most prestigious and important bars and clubs, frequently sharing bills with Sven Vath, Marco Carola, Richy Ahmed, and others:
As a producer, he has released a handful of singles through a number of different labels, including the attention-grabbing “Sugar,” which was released through Adesso Music.
Born Vito Lucente, the Italian-Belgian house music and producer and DJ, best known as Junior Jack has had a lengthy career that traces back to the 90s: Lucente’s earliest days features collaborations with Eric Imhauser crafting Eurodance and with synth pop/hip-hop act Benny B.
By 1995, Lucente abandoned Eurodance and began experimenting with house music under the moniker Mr. Jack, which would morph into Junior Jack. Lucente had quickly amassed enviable success with a handful of UK Top 40 singles that included “My Feeling,” “Thrill Me (Such A Thrill),” “E Samba,” “Dare Me (Stupidisco) and “Da Hype,” which featured guest vocals from The Cure‘s Robert Smith. Lucente’s Junior Jack debut Trust It was released to critical acclaim.
While developing a reputation for crafting smash hits, Lucente simultaneously developed a reputation as a remixer, reworking songs by Whitney Houston, Moby, Bob Sinclar and Utada among others.
Lucente’s fifth release on his Adesso Music label finds the Italian-Belgian house music producer and DJ reworking Virak’s “Sugar.” Centered around skittering beats and percussion, shimmering synth arpeggios, a motorik groove and soulful vocals and a euphoric hook, the Junior Jack rework of “Sugar” is a sultry, deep house take on the original — with a crowd pleasing accessibility.
Jean-Pierre “Jupiter” Bokondji is a Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo-born and-based bandleader, songwriter and percussionist. Bokondji’s grandmother was a traditional healer, who got introduced him to music by having him attend religious ceremonies and funerals, which he later would play percussion. His father was a Congolese diplomat, who received a post at the Congolese embassy in East Berlin — and as a result, the family relocated to Germany.
While in Germany Bokondji started his first band Der Neger, an act that meshed the Mongo music of his native Congo with the European rock of his German-born bandmates. When his father’s post ended, the family returned to Kinshasa in the 1980s. Upon his family’s return, Bokondji traveled around the country listening to the music of the country’s different tribes, eventually developing and honing his own style and sound. In 1984, he formed a band called Bongofolk — and in 1990, he formed his best known and longest running band Okwess International, which currently features Staff Benda Bilili’s Montana (drums), Yendรฉ (bass), Eric (guitar), Richard (guitar) and Blaise (vocals).
In the years immediately after their formation, the members of Jupiter & Okwess toured across Africa, playing a crowd-pleasing mix of Afropop, traditional Congolese rhythms, funk and rock paired with strong sociopolitical messages that Bokondji has dubbed “bofenia rock.” But unfortunately, as they saw increased popularity, a bloody civil war broke out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Some of the band’s members fled to Europe as a result of the war; however, Bokondji remained in Kinshasa. And as the war died down, the Congolese songwriter, bandleader and percussionist saw a resurgence of his popularity.
Bokondji was featured in the 2006 documentary filmJupiter’s Dance. The film brought him to the attention of British producers and musicians — and it lead to him joining the Africa Express tour and to major stops across the global festival circuit, including Glastonbury Festival and Way Out West. Adding to a rapidly growing international profile, the act released their long-awaited full-length debut, 2013’s Hotel Univers.
The Kinshasa-based act’s sophomore effort, 2018’s Kin Sonic finds the members of the band further expanding their sound outside of their homeland, incorporating elements of modern, contemporary music. As a result of the album’s popularity, Bokondji and company played 180 dates across the globe, including performing in the Paris production of Abderrahmane Sissako and Damon Albarn’s opera Le Vol du Boli.
Jupiter & Okwess’s latest EP Bolingo serves as follow-up to Kin Sonic while providing listeners a taste of what to expect for their forthcoming, third full-length album, slated for an April 2021 release. In the meantime, the Mario Caldato, Jr-recorded effort finds the Congolese act meshing a unique array of sounds across the African Diaspora from traditional African music, disco, jazz, New Orleans brass, samba and even soul while still remaining committed to sociopolitically conscious lyrics and a strong sense of purpose.
The EP’s latest single, EP title track “Bolingo” is a sonic departure from the bonefia rock they’ve established, with the band playing a shuffling and breezy samba featuring shimmering acoustic guitar, shuffling rhythms, soaring call and response vocals featuring Brazilian vocalist Rogรช, and a gorgeous flute solo coda. Complete with infectious hooks, the song is centered around a simple yet very powerful message — love is our purpose. Material things don’t teach you anything about life; love does. And although, the Trump Administration’s miserable term is ending in a month, we all still feel like we’re in the end days — and we need to be reminded of the hope and power of love right now.
Daniell Fridell is a multi-instrumentalist and producer with a deep background in jazz, funk, soul and Balkan music. Throughout his lengthy professional career, Fridell has played and produced material for albums, commercials, TV and theater while residing in Denmark and Sweden. As a result of his work, the currently Sweden-based Fridell has toured across the European Union, Africa and the US.
Fridell’s latest project Cumbiasound draws from Colombian cumbia and Peruvian chic with elements of reggae, Balkan folk, Afrobeat, sou and jazz added to the mix. Cumbiasound can trace its origins back to 2010 when Fridell was first introduced to cumbia. โ2010 I heard cumbia the first time while standing outside of a supermarket eating ice cream,โ Fridell explains in press notes. โIt was blazing hot and all of a sudden this music came out of the speakers. โWhatโs that?โ I asked and the rest is history. A true love affair.โ
Earlier this year, Fridell released his Cumbiasound debut, Vol. 1: Instrumentales, a critically applauded effort that found the Swedish-based multi-instrumentalist and producer collaborating with Erik Axelsson (trombone, euphonium) that received attention across the blogosphere for being a blissful bit of escapism — and for being an oddity in our increasingly globalized world. South American cumbia convincingly done by Swedes and other Scandinavians? Uh, why not?
Fridell caps off a successful year with his sophomore Cumbiasound EP, Cosas del Universo. The EP, which sees Fridell collaborating with vocalists Boogie Castillo, Lis Flores Varela and Josรฉ Pereelanga and frequent collaborator Erik Axellsson continues where its predecessor started off — but while digging deeper into several different styles of cumbia paired with 70s Palenque rhythms.
Interestingly, many of the collaborations on the five song EP can be traced back a couple of decades before: Fridell first met Chilean-born, Swedish-based emcee and vocalist Boogie Castillo in the mid-90s, when Castillo was a member of Helsingborg, Sweden-based hip-hop act DOSS. They managed to meet again in 2012 and they collaborated on a couple of early Cumbiasound tracks, including Fridell’s Cumbiasound debut “Calzones Largos,” which was released on the net label Caballito. Considering it a great time to get together to finish old ideas and create new music, Fridelll and Castillo wanted some additional flavor on the EP, so they recruited Lis Flores Varela to contribute her vocals.
Simultaneously, Fridell had been working with Congolese vocalist Josรฉ Pereelanga on a number of different occasions and invited the Congolese vocalist to broaden the effort’s overall sound. Fridell and his collaborators are hoping that with Cosas del Universo, they have crafted material that can appeal to a broad audience — while adding a Scandinavian twist.
“Maz Paz,” Cosas del Universo’s first single is a breezy yet dance floor friendly anthem centered around shuffling, Latin polyrhythms, a looping and fluttering flute line, an Afrobeat-inspired guitar line, a sinuous bass line and an infectious hook. Boogie Castillo and Lis Flores Varela contribute impressive and inspired turns rhyming and singing to the mix. “Maz Paz” finds the act crafting an infectious and funky bit of cumbia with a globalist and genre-defying bent.
Birmingham, UK-based multi-disciplinary artist, multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter Jess Webberely is the creative mastermind behind the rising solo recording project Graywave. Inspired by acts like Men I Trust, Slowdive, Crumb and Widowspeak, Webberley’s work pairs dreamy chords, shoegaze-like guitar leads and powerful vocals in an attempt to create music that makes you feel as though you were floating away to someplace else.
Since the release of Webberley’s debut single “Afternoon Escapism,” the Birmingham-based artist has played shows across the West Midlands region with Slow Crush, Petal, and VENUS –– with a live band that helps properly convey the project’s sound on stage. Adding to a growing profile, Webberley has played shows in Bristol — and “With Me,” which was released back in June, has received radio airplay, including Brum Radio A List and Coventry and Warwickshire BBC Introducing. The track has also seen positive reviews across the blogosphere.
Building upon a growing profile, Webberley will release her debut EP, the five track Planetary Shift, an effort that reportedly finds the Birmingham-based artist making a bold step forward in her songwriting and production. The EP’s first single “Like Heaven” is a slow-burning and brooding track, centered around layers of heavier and muscular guitars played through reverb and feeddback, thunderous drumming and a soaring hook paired with Webberley’s achingly plaintive vocals. Seemingly indebted to Slowdive and A Storm in Heaven-era The Verve, the song reveals a push towards a grittier and more forceful direction.
โโLike Heavenโ is ultimately about the struggle of light and dark within oneself,” Webberley explains in press notes. “The lyrics aim to capture a sense of self destruction and a strange urge to self sabotage. The song is about that darker side of myself that pushes doubt and lack of self worth to the forefront.โ
London-based doom metal/stoner rock quartet Elephant Tree — currently founding members Jack Townley (bass, guitar) and Sam Hart (drums) with Peter Holland (bass, vocals) and John Slattery (guitar, synths) – can trace its origins back to 2013: Townley and Hart would meet every week at a rehearsal space nestled behind the now demolished 12 Bar Club, where they actually started cobbling the first notes of what would eventually become their debut single “Attack of the Altacia.”
Townley and Slattery had a random encounter with Peter Holland, who had an almost mythical status in the scene at a local bar. After talking for a few hours, they all agreed that they should get together to jam. The idea was further cemented after the trio caught OM play at The Village Underground — with Holland taking bass duties, allowing Townley to switch to guitar. As a newly constituted trio, the members of Elephant Tree began polishing “Attack of the Altacia”‘s rough edges before progressing onto newer riffs and melodic ideas paired with Holland’s vocals. And yet, the trio felt something was missing from their sound — until they met Canadian-born Riley MacIntyre (guitar, sitar, vocals), who competed the band’s first lineup.
In 2015, Elephant Tree was handpicked by Magnetic Eye Records from an early demo submission that featured a unique blend of stoner rock, doom metal and sludge centered around a warm, syrupy fuzz and soaring vocal harmonies. Their debut effort Theia and 2016 self-titled effort wound up becoming two of the most popular records of the Magnetic Eye Records’ catalog.
Although the band has gone through a series of lineup changes, their third album, this year’s critically applauded Habits finds the band’s sound and stylistic range expanding to include elements of post-metal and acoustic folk paired with unconventional songwriting.
Last year, Magnetic Eye Records celebrated their first decade with the Day of Doom Showcase at Saint Vitus Bar, which featured nine of the labelโs acts including the Swedish doom metal act DOMKRAFT and Elephant Tree. Much like DOMKRAFT’s Day of Doom set, the British quartet’s set was recored by Deafheavenโs and Summonerโs Chris Johnson as part of a set of four exclusive live albums. Elephant Tree’s Day of Doom set is a career-spanning set of what Metal Injection describes as “gloomy atmosphere with head-bobbing grooves.”
“Aphotic Blues,” is the first single off Elephant Tree’s live album and the single is centered around syrupy and sludgy power chords, thunderous drumming, Alice in Chains-like harmonizing within an expansive song structure. And its all delivered with a snarling forcefulness.
With the release of 2014’s “Splice”/”Sleep Attack” 7 inch and 2015’s Tom McFall-produced, self-titled debut EP, which featured “Warning Pulse” and “California (Will Burn),” the Portland, OR-based indie rock act Rare Monk received praise across the blogosphere, as well as college radio airplay.
In 2016, the Portland-based indie act went through a series of lineup changes that included the departure of their original guitarist and violinist, who was later replaced by Hugh Jepson. With Jepson’s addition to the band, the newly reconstituted quartet started writing material that’s seen as a marked sonic departure from their previously released work. The end result was 2017’s self-released, full-length debut A Future, which featured songs with bigger guitar parts, dueling leads and falsetto harmonies, as you’d hear on “Happy Haunting,” the quartet’s biggest track to date.
Never Really Over, the Portland, OR- based indie rock act’s sophomore album is slated for release next year — and although the material was originally written and recorded between 2018-2019, the album manages to capture our current moment with an eerie prescience. The central thematic thread is an omnipresent and seemingly unceasing dread: of the end of the world as we know it; of impending financial collapse, of a slow decline and devolution full of paranoia, the demonization of science, constant surveillance, persecution and cruelty at increasingly efficient scales, rampant greed, idiocy and inescapable death. While those initial fears have become frighteningly real, Rare Monk’s Dorian Aites says “Hope is definitely not lost, it’s just become more difficult. We’ll get through and we hope the songs help.”
“Statistic Vandals,” Never Really Over‘s latest single features shimmering, reverb-soaked guitars, angular bass lines, driving rhythms and ethereal vocals. — and while the song sonically seems indebted to OK Computer-era Radiohead, the song is centered around a seething and uneasy fury inspired by a word of constant data collection, aggregation and warrantless surveillance.
Chiara Foschiani is a Paris-born-and-based singer/songwriter and pianist. Although she’s just 17, the Paris-born artist can trace the origins of her music career to learning the piano when she turned eight. Foschiani started signing when she was 13, joining local bands and performing on small stages and local music festivals before she started writing her own original material.
Since 2018, the emerging French singer/songwriter has been posting demos and covers on Soundcloud — with her material amassing over 49,000 streams. When Foschiani turned 16, she left school to fully dedicate herself to music, spending her time with literature, film, concerts, festivals and listening to new music and meeting artists. But generally speaking, she cites Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Lana del Rey and others as influences on her work.
Foschiani’s second and latest single is the slow-burning ballad “My Glass of Wine.” Centered around thumping beats, shimmering and atmospheric synths and the French singer/songwriter’s self-assured and soulful vocals, “My Glass of Wine” manages to bring Dummy-era Portishead to mind, complete with a brooding, cinematic quality.
Formed almost 20 years ago, the Brooklyn-based act Dub Trio — Grammy Award nominated-Stu Brooks (bass), DP Holmes (guitar) and Joe Tomino (drums) — have firmly established a critically applauded boundary pushing approach to dub that incorporates metal, punk rock, alt rock and shoegaze through the release of four albums, 2004’s full-length debut Exploring the Dangers Of, 2006’s New Heavy, 2008’s Another Sound Is Dying and 2011’s IV.
During that same exact period, the members of Dub Trio have been rather busy: they’ve done studio work with Mike Patton and Lady Gaga; they’ve toured alongside the likes of Clutch, Gogol Bordello, and The Dillinger Escape Plan — and they’ve toured as the backing band for Peeping Tom. After extensive touring to support IV, the Brooklyn-based trio went on hiatus.
Reconvening for a two week reunion at a tiny Brooklyn rehearsal room in 2018, the trio began working on the material for their fifth album, The Shape of Dub To Come. Featuring collaborations with Melvins‘ King Buzzo, Mastodon‘s Troy Sanders, Meshell Ndgeocello and an impressive array of others, The Shape of Dub To Come finds the act actively pushing dub into as many new sonic territories as possible — while serving as their first release through New Damage Records.
“Them Thing Deh,” The Shape of Dub To Come‘s latest single finds Dub Trio collaborating with Skindred’s Benji Webbe on a strutting single featuring sinuous and propulsive bass line, twinkling keys paired with Webbe’s soulful vocals, shuffling reggae riddims and reverb-drenched effects. And while seemingly centered around the prerequisite irie vibes, “Them Thing Deh” is fueled by the sociopolitical concerns of our current moment.
“We’re putting this song out for the love of it. We knew we wanted to do a track that paid homage to our fore-fathers of reggae and dub, rhythm section greatness, Sly & Robbie,” Dub Trio’s Stu Brooks says in press notes. “They have been an endless source of inspiration to us as a band from the beginning. So, as helicopters swarmed over Hollywood during BLM protests, my wife and I felt compelled to finally break quarantine. As we approached Hollywood and Vine to join in solidarity with the protesters, ‘Them Thing Deh’ happened to be the soundtrack in my headphones. Feeling the anger we share with the BLM movement, the lyric ‘got to keep your cool; really spoke to me as I could feel the tension in the air. That week, we quickly put the rhythm tracks together, recording from 3 different states, with the help of Roger Rivas on organ and keys and hit up our old friend, legend Benji Webbe from the UK band, Skindred. Benji is the ultimate genre-masher, soulfully clashing metal, reggae, punk, dub, dancehall…all the sh*t we love!โ
Singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer Christopher Goett may be best known for his work in Silo Halo. After a decade stint in Washington, DC. Goett returned to Los Angeles — and he quickly amassed a growing collection of songs. Interestingly, Goett credits his longtime friend, Sleepmask’s and Dreamland’s Adam D’Zurilla with encouraging him to further explore and expand upon those early song ideas. The end result is Goett’s latest project, the post punk/shoegaze act Blackout Transmission.
With the addition of Kevin Cluppert (bass) and Teenage’s Wrist’s Anthony Salazar (drums), the band’s lineup was solidified, and their sound and arrangements were fleshed out. Late last year, the members of Blackout Transmission slated playing live shows, developing and harnessing their live chemistry before they went to Long Beach-based Dream Machine Studio to record most of their Scott Holmes co-produced, eight song, full-length debut, Sparse Illumination. โScott pushed me in the best way to reimagine elements of my approachโ says Goett, โas such we captured the vibe and feel that I was seeking with these songs.โ
As a result of pandemic-related restrictions and lockdowns, Goett was forced to finalize his overdubs at his home studio, Twin Dragon West — and where he wrote and recorded two of the album’s eight songs. Despite where the material was written and recorded, the end result is an album that finds the band crafting material that’s a seamless lysergic journey seemingly influenced by Echo and the Bunnymen, The Verve, and others.
Sparse Illumination‘s latest single is the brooding and expansive “Portals.” Centered around a sinuous bass line, thunderous drumming, swirling reverb and delay pedaled guitar and Goett’s lyrics offering meditations on space, time and love, “Portals” possesses the sort of painterly and lysergic textures of A Storm in Heaven but paired with a widescreen, cinematic quality.
Sparse Illuminationย slated for a February 19, 2021 through Etxe Records.
The Roskilde-born, London-based JOVM mainstay first gained attention as a solo artist inn her native Denmark, quickly becoming a three-time Scandinavian Soul Award winner. Dahlstrom relocated to London, where she has become an international sensation while crafting a warm and ethereal sound that features elements of jazz, classic soul and contemporary R&B.
After successful collaborations with Tom Misch and Alfa Mist, Dahlstrom released her critically applauded full-length debut Like Sand, an effort that was recorded in Los Angeles, Copenhagen, and London and features collaborations with James Vickery,Jeremy Passion, Elijah Fox,Beau Diako and a list of others. Dahlstrom also released the Toronto Vol. 1 EPwith the multi-national, all-female artist collective Her Songs. Capping off a prolific year, Dahlstom teamed up with London-based producer Dan Diggas and Canadian emcee Aligo on a collaborative EP together 4inaRow.
Slated for a a January 15, 2021 release through Dahlstrom’s JFH Records, 4inaRow was conceived around a central idea — writing and recording four-track EP in just four nights, And as a result, the EP was essentially an experiment in writing, recording and producing purely on impulse. Each of the EP was recorded between 8:00pm and midnight during four nights in January 2020 — and each individual song has its own story to tell. Generally speaking the process was centered around Diggas providing beats and production while the Roskilde-born, London-based JOVM mainstay and Algo shared vocal duties.
“Marie and I lived in the JFH flat for a little over a year and after a few months we figured out a way for us to really tap in and make music together.” Align says about the creative process behind the forthcoming EP. “We told ourselves every night for 4 straight days we are going to tackle a pack of beats that Dan made while he was on tour with Mahalia. Theme-wise there wasn’t a plan at first but we knew we wanted to explore different emotions and feelings with each night that passed. By the end we noticed the songs came together in a cohesive way that demonstrated a four stage cycle of love/relationships.”
“Fall Down,” 4inaRow EP‘s first single is features a slickly produced yet delicate mix of soulful contemporary pop, Quiet Storm soul, and hip hop centered around twinkling keys, skittering beats and dueling verses between Dahlsrom and Aligo, who rhymes a verse and sings a dueling perspective verse with the JOVM mainstay. The song captures a relationship in an odd transitional period in which the couple’s resolve and desire to remain together is being tested.
“”Fall Down’ is an ode to arguments that can be common at times, but left untreated could ruin a relationship,” Dahlstrom explains. “Like autumn, this song is a transition period to a colder and more challenging part of the year and symbolic of the changes that can occur when this happens in relationships: ‘consequences get the best of you'”.
Gold Coast, Australia-based alt rock trio boWsER — Nathan Williams, Otto Miller, Jr. and Brad Weynton – formed well over a decade ago, and when its members met, they recognized an instant connection and a desire to make music that pushed each individual member in new creative directions while crafting an enormous, power chord-driven sound that drew comparisons to Queens of the Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures.
The trio quickly attained enviable and immediate success: After signing a worldwide publishing deal with EMI, they released their critically applauded debut mini album, 2007’s Modus Operandi, an effort that earned them The Courier-MailPeople’s Choice Award nomination in the Rock category and a Q Song Awards nomination. Adding to a rapidly growing profile in their native Australia, boWsER were hand-selected by Triple J Unearthed to open for Eagles of Death Metal during their Australian tour.
The Aussie rock act ended a 13 year hiatus with the release of “People in the TV,” the first single off their forthcoming Steve James-produced sophomore effort Whispers From The Wickerman. The album’s second single “Supersonic” features a classic grunge rock song structure of alternating quiet verses and loud choruses, fuzz pedaled and churning power chord-driven riffs, a sinuous bass line, thunderous drumming and massive, arena rock friendly hooks that — to my ears, at least — reminds me of Queens of the Stone Age’s Songs for the Deaf and Foo Fighters‘ One by One and Wasting Light, delivered with a similar swagger.
Doubleheader is a new collaborative project between Arthur Comeau, a musician and producer, who has released material as Radio Radio, Nom de Plume and under his own name — and multi-instrumentalist, producer and arranger Jean Massicotte, who has worked with Patrick Wilson, Jean Leloup, Lhasa, Arthur H, Alejandra Ribera and a lengthy list of others. Doubleheader finds the acclaimed musicians and producers blending a wild mix of ideas, genres and sounds — including beatmaking, DJinng, hip-hop, worldbeat, pop and others — as aa way of showing the world what pop music can feel and sound like in the 2020s and beyond, continuing artist’s push towards a genre-defying and genre-less world. But more Importantly, their sound and approach is specifically crafted to be a reflection of the world we should be aspiring to — a multicultural world that celebrates diversity in all of its forms.
The Montreal-based act’s 10 song, full-length debut Slim Wall finds the duo collaborating with an equally accomplished collection of Canadian vocalists including 2020 Juno Award-winning artist Dominque Fils-Aimรฉ, 2019 AFRIMA Award-winning artist AfrotroniX, 2020 Juno Award-winner Djely Tapa, Samito,EIDHZ, Quentin Hatfield and TEKE: TEKE’s Maya Kuroki to create material that eschews genre and language constraints in an interesting yet accessible fashion.
Acclaimed Malian-Canadian artist Djely Tapa contributes achingly plaintive and evocative vocals to Slim Wall single “Djanto,’ a track which pairs shimmering acoustic guitar with skittering beats, twinkling synth arpeggios and a soaring hook in a slickly produced club banger that finds the members of Doubleheader meshing elements of reggaeton and Afro pop. But underneath the club friendly, tweeter and woofer rocking thump, the song is centered by a thoughtful and important message: taking care of nature involves protecting both animal and human life.
KARLITA is a rising French DJ and producer, who fell in love with the trip-hop, ambient electronica and lounge compilations in her parents record collection. Her desire to share her thoughts and emotions through music — her earliest love — had influenced her to start writing her own original music,, inspired by her surroundings.
The French DJ and producer’s full-length debut, last year’s Lazydayz found her quickly establishing a unique sound and approach in which melancholy and hope meshed in a groove-driven fashion. Lazydayz‘s follow-up, the five track EP Amor Fabola finds KARLITA exploring a sinuous, deep house sound. Interestingly, the EP’s title derives its names from two disparate sources — the Latin phrase for love story and from the French word fabuler, which can translate into “invent,” “make up” or “fantasize,” as well as implying infatuation, attachment and adoration. And the listener is invited to make up their own story with the material. โThis album tends to retrace the process of a romance, good or bad, to each his own interpretation,” the French DJ and producer explains in press notes.
The EP’s latest single, EP opening track “i Can’t Wait” features glistening synth arpeggios stuttering hit hats, reverb-drenched thumps and KARLITA’s plaintive cooing paired with a sultry and insistent groove. But underneath the dance floor friendliness of the material, the song is imbued with the sort of longing and introspective nature that reminds quite a bit of Octo Octa‘s Between Two Selves.
